ACE - Affordable Community Energy Services Company

How I Serve

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The 411: Successfully Funded - Sustainability for Low-Income Housing

Found on: https://www.startengine.com/affordablecommunityenergyservices
https://www.affordablecommunityenergyservices.com

ACE IS A TRUE TRIPLE BOTTOM-LINE ENTERPRISE, INTENDING TO DELIVER BENEFITS TO LOW-INCOME HOUSING COMMUNITIES, OUR PLANET AND OUR INVESTORS.

1. Help Keep Affordable Housing

    Affordable.

Maintaining affordable* housing for seniors, disabled individuals and families with low income has always been a challenge. The National Low-income Housing Coalition estimates that the U.S. “has a shortage of 7.4 million affordable and available rental homes…resulting in 35 affordable and available units for every 100 [extremely low-income] households.” 

(Source: National Low Income Housing Coalition, the GAP Report - A Shortage of AffordableHomes, March 2017.)

Now, with the current political climate, that challenge is even greater. ACE’s work will provide critical and direct financial and other support to the owners of low-income housing and, to a certain extent, to its residents by reducing and controlling their utility costs.

This will help to:

• Maintain the quality of existing low-income housing
• Allow some owners to preserve existing affordable housing and reclaim market-rate housing for low-income housing by lowering projected operating costs
• Provide tangible proof to low-income communities that people are investing in their homes—and in them.

2. Help Sustain Our Environment.

ACE's work reduces dangerous greenhouse gases (GHG) and preserves precious water resources, while creating a more healthful physical environment for the residents of the projects we improve. 

Through our energy efficiency and water conservation improvements our goal for a typical future project is to:

• Reduce electricity consumption by 15-40%
• Reduce natural gas consumption by 20-40%
• Reduce water consumption by 25-60%

ACE's renewable improvements further reduce GHG

3. Achieve Targeted Sustainable Returns.

ACE intends to develop multiple sustainability projects. For each such project, ACE would expect to obtain revenue (which will vary from project to project) from some or all of the following sources:

• A Developer's Fee targeted at 10% of total project costs
• Contract Revenues over the term of an anticipated 10-year agreement consisting of:
  • A share of energy and water savings
  • Payments for onsite solar or cogeneration electricity production
  • Other subsidies made in certain states for solar production

(ACE will also receive one-time subsidies from state and utility incentive programs for energy efficiency improvements and Federal tax credits for its renewable improvements, which are used to reduce the capital costs of its projects.)

As an ACE investor:

• The value of your investment will grow with ACE's success
• As determined by ACE management and assuming ACE's future success, your return could eventually be in the form of:
• Dividends declared at a later stage in the company’s development
• Proceeds from a sale or recapitalization of ACE

What kind of retrofit improvements do you install at the properties?

We start out with the goal of installing as much energy efficiency, water conservation and renewable energy improvements as is technically and financially feasible. Currently, there are limits to what we can afford to do. However, our approach of using improvements with faster paybacks (like lighting, water conservation and controls) to, in a sense, subsidize important measures with longer paybacks, allows us to do a broader scope of improvements than is typical. We call this the “Whole Tree” approach, as opposed to a more typical “Low-hanging Fruit” approach.

The measures that we are often able to install include the following:

• Energy-efficiency lighting and lighting controls
• Low-flow faucets, shower-heads and toilets (we also focus very closely on leak detection and prevention)
• Energy-efficient domestic hot water heaters
• Building and system controls
• Insulation and air-sealing
• Recommissioning (making sure that all existing equipment is properly tuned and maintained and being operated correctly)
• Repiping
• Renewable energy systems, typically solar photovoltaic panels (that produce electricity) and solar thermal panels (that reduce the need for natural gas and/or electricity to heat or cool the properties)

Other site-specific improvements are often found as we perform detailed audits and analyses.

In the End, Everybody Wins.

Multi-Family Affordable Housing Owners.

Multi-family affordable housing owners share in the water and energy savings and keep the facility improvements after the end of their agreement with ACE, thus increasing the value of their assets.

Residents.

Residents reduce their utilities usage and enjoy increased comfort in their homes.

ACE and Its Investors.

ACE is able to realize its mission of helping low-income communities and the planet, while receiving a reasonable return on its capital and services.